Slavery in Our Backyard

Slavery is something we think of as having ended long ago, or if it does still exist, an atrocity that occurs on another continent.

Yet it's on the increase, not far away, but right in our backyard. In every case it's the result of foreign gangs who have infested our communities and misplaced liberal tolerance that allows them to flourish unabated. It's good to see a crackdown, let's hope it has an impact:



(Boston Herald)

Backed with federal money, a Boston-based task force is being launched to counter the spread of human trafficking in the region, including, according to some accounts, street gangs pressing 13-year-olds into prostitution.
``To me,'' said the American Anti-Slavery Group's Liora Kasten, human trafficking ``is one of the most atrocious things you can do. It's not just taking someone's life away from them, it's dehumanizing to the point that they don't even feel like people anymore.
``And that can be worse than killing someone.''
The growing slave trade is an international blight with a local impact. As demonstrated by the plights of an Indian nanny fed table scraps by a Brookline couple and seven Estonian women coerced by a Brighton businessman to toil in his ``erotic'' massage parlors, today's black-marketer of bodies can be the neighbor next door.